Leeds Local SEND Reform Plan 2026

Leeds Local Area Partnership

Local SEND Reform Plan

June 2026

Annex A: Local SEND Reform Plan

Developing a Local SEND Reform Plan is an important first step for local areas to set out how they will lay the foundation for reform, and design an approach tailored to their local context. A shared plan which focuses on co-designing the local approach as system partners and with children, young people and families will help foster collective responsibility for delivering the reforms.

It is critical that all system partners, including health, education and childcare settings, work together to design and deliver the Local SEND Reform Plan, under the local authority’s leadership. It is also crucial that representative family carers e.g. the local Parent Carer Forum, are involved in the development of the plan.

The expectation is that this plan is discussed, agreed, and signed off at your relevant SEND Governance Board. As a minimum, the plan must be formally signed off by the Local Authority Chief Executive (Ceo), the Integrated Care Board (Icb) Chief Executive, the Local Authority Director of Children’s Service (Dcs), the Integrated Care Board NHS Place Director, and the Local Authority Chief Financial Officer (Cfo/Section 151 Officer). We encourage other colleagues and partners who have contributed to also review and sign-off the plan, particularly early years, school, college and trust leaders.

Name of Local Authority: Leeds City Council

Name of Integrated Care Board: NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board

Local SEND Reform Plan Sro: Phil Evans

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Signatories

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Contents

Executive summary

Section 3: Monitoring and evaluation Section 1: Vision and goals

11. How will the local area partnership know delivery is on track

12. Reporting to DfE

1. What the local area partnership is trying to achieve

Section 4: Governance Section 2: Strategy

13. How will the local area partnership ensure delivery of plans remain on track

2. Where the local area partnership expects to be in the next three years

3. What is the local area partnership’s strategy for delivery

Section 5: Central government support

• Experts at Hand: Theory of change

14. How can we help you

4. What is the local area partnership roadmap for the next 3 years

Annex B: Supporting documents

5. What will the local area partnership deliver in the first year

Annex C: Risk matrix

6. How will the local area partnership deliver the first-year plan

7. Other funding local authorities:

Annex D: Performance metrics template

• Block transfers

Annex E: Glossary

• Capital

8. System partner and stakeholder engagement, and co-production

9. Risks and mitigations

10. Dependencies

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Executive summary

A summary of your local system ‘change story’ – your local context, where you are now, where you want to get to in the next 3 years, how you know you are succeeding and how you will know you have achieved your vision for the next 3 years. Please include a brief qualitative summary. This summary should also include your assessment of current and forecast performance against the headline metrics.

Please structure your ‘change story’ using the following aims:

Build a 0-25 system where children and young people receive support to achieve and thrive through (a) more inclusive settings and (b) stronger local partnerships

• Improve capacity and capability of the mainstream and specialist workforce to identify and meet need
• Improve confidence of children, families, and stakeholders in reform and readiness of the system
• Stabilise finances and improve value for money

Leeds is the second largest metropolitan authority in England. We are a young city with the under 18 population growing by 10% (England 5.3% and the region 3.9%) over the past decade. The number of children and young people with SEND has grown at a higher rate. In 2024/25, there were 27,080 children and young people with SEND: 43% higher than in 2018/19. We now have 19.8% with SEND, broadly in-line with the national average (19.6%).

Child Friendly Leeds has a long-standing commitment to inclusion and to improving the lives of children and young people with SEND. The city benefits from strong universal services, a developing culture of partnership working, and a focus on voice, influence and co production. Across education, health and care there are many examples of high-quality practice and dedicated professionals working to support children and families.

Despite these strengths, we know the SEND system is not working consistently well enough for all children, young people and families. Too many experience long delays in assessment, EHCP planning and access to needs-led support, particularly across EHCP and neurodevelopmental pathways. Leadership instability, insufficient grip across the partnership, and rising demand have limited the pace of improvement. Outcomes for children and young people with SEND, particularly around attendance, suspensions and preparation for adulthood, remain a significant concern.

Page 5 of 86 To tackle these issues, we are aiming high. We want a system where:

Children and young people receive support to achieve and thrive through more inclusive settings and stronger local partnerships built through a local inclusion support offer.

Benefit from improved capacity and capability of the mainstream and specialist workforce to identify and meet their needs through a strong Experts at Hand offer, combining training, advice and direct support alongside settings.

Have more confidence, along with their parents/carers and stakeholders, in a needs-led system that provides support earlier. Voice, influence and coproduction will remain at the heart of this and will help to drive support and provision towards delivering in the way that works for families.

Benefit from a high- quality education system that has stability due to oversight of finances and improved value for money: getting our resources in a stable and sustainable position through the mitigating actions we take to achieve a fully inclusive system.

Transformation and investments in Leeds will lead to financial sustainability of the local system, as well as improved experiences and outcomes for children and young people. Our reform programme is designed to simultaneously improve experiences, outcomes and financial sustainability, with all major investments linked to measures of demand, activity, outcome and cost.

We will know when we have been successful when:

Early identification is a key feature of effective practice, shown through improved EHCP timeliness and quality, annual reviews (to be in line with the national average) and a reduction in mediations/tribunals (target of <15% increase year on year, against current >30% increase).

There is a sustained reduction in the proportion of young people with SEND who are not in education, employment or training (Neet) compared to the 2025/26 baseline.

More children and young people have their needs met in mainstream schools/settings leading to a reduction of those moving to special schools at key transition points.

Children, young people and their parents/carers feel that their voices are being heard, and we are meeting their needs (evidenced through Pcf annual survey, launching 22 June 2026). Communication, access to support, waiting times, and what happens when support is not working will feel positively different for families.

To deliver our ambitions, a single integrated plan will bring together DfE reform requirements, SEND improvement priorities and local area inspection themes within one overarching plan. This will provide a clearer strategic direction and avoids multiple overlapping plans.

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Section 1: Vision and Goals

• What the local area partnership is trying to achieve?

Please set out your goals for your local system. These should be clear, aligned to the vision set out in the Schools White Paper, small in number and measurable. These goals should include clear reference to:

• Outcomes for children
• Confidence of parents, carers and young people in the system
• Management of finances to secure value for money

In Leeds we aim high for our children and young people. Our vision is that every child and young person can access the right support, in the right place, at the right time to ensure that they thrive and achieve the highest possible outcomes.

Our goals are:

Outcomes for children and young people will be improved: Through earlier identification and support, needs will be addressed through strengthening inclusive mainstream provision (Imp), improving the quality and timeliness of EHCPs, and reduction in escalation to specialist placements as needs can be met earlier. Success will be seen in improved attendance, academic outcomes and education, employment and training rates. When statutory processes are required, these will be timely (c7%) to >60% by year three.

Confidence in the system will be greater: SEND and inclusion strategies will be coproduced with all partners, and include feedback loops, ensuring children’s, young people’s and parents/carers views shape the system. Families will have confidence that support is available earlier and not solely dependent on diagnosis or statutory plans. Communication systems will be improved, evidenced through reduction in mediation (currently 175 registered tribunals for the last full year, with a target of <15% increase year on year, against current >30% increase). Better use of the local offer will support this.

Financial management and value for money, leads to sustainability: We will strengthen financial oversight, through the Children and Families Financial Assurance Board and councils’ continuing focus on managing down the deficit, ensuring effective use of resources, delivering value for money support and provision. We will create more mainstream specialist inclusion bases reducing reliance on special schools and high-cost placements. This will deliver additional places by 2028/29 (see capital section). Quality assurance measures for all commissioned provision, will result in sound joint commissioning and more targeted support based on performance data.

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Section 2: Strategy

2. Where the local area partnership expects to be in the next 3 years

A description of what your local system would look like in the next 3 years in line with the national vision set out in the Schools White Paper and set within the context of where you are starting from as a local system.

In particular, as commissioning system partners, you should reflect on and agree what your fully fledged Experts At Hand Offer model should be and how this will be deployed via mainstream settings and providers (including those not based in your area – e.g. further education colleges attended by your young people) to build their capacity as well as identify and meet the needs of children and young people earlier and without the need for a statutory assessment for Education, Health and Care.

To help you fully consider the scope and scale of change required, you may find it useful to structure your response using these 4 building blocks of an inclusive system, reflecting on what is working well in your system, what you are most worried about, what needs to change, and how the enablers will help you achieve your 3 year vision.

When summarising where your local area partnership currently is, please include an assessment of where you are in reference to the core minimum requirements above and how you bridge the gap, referring to and attaching additional documents that provide underlying evidence for your summary.

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Local blueprint for the next 3 years

Where we are (a short summary of where you are now including a reflection on what is working well, what needs to change and the status of the enablers that underpin your system)

Where we will be in the next 3 years (a short summary of the vision for your local system in the next 3 years including the system enablers, reflecting how your Experts At Hand Offer model will underpin this vision, helping you scale and enhance what is working well and change what is not working so well)

Building block 1: Strengthening inclusion across education settings (links to Child Friendly Leeds, wish 10, priority developed with children and young people)

Where we are

We want to create a system where all children and young people have the best start and have access to support as soon as they need it, when needs have been identified. We want to build knowledge, skills and capacity in all schools/settings so that early identification is part of the fabric of the system.

The population of pupils with SEN has increased across all school phases, most sharply in state-funded secondary schools (up 75% from 2018/19 to 2024/25).

Leeds shows higher SEN prevalence in primary schools than in England and Statistical Neighbours, while secondary prevalence is broadly similar to in England and lower than Statistical Neighbours.

When children and young people require an EHCP, we will ensure that they are completed and issued in a timely way, so support is available when required. EHCPs will better reflect the current needs and provision for the child or young person across health, education and social care, particularly as they move through different phases of education. There will be improved and embedded processes for the quality assurance of EHCP and annual reviews, including parent/carer involvement.

Funding For Inclusion (Ffi: allocating Hnb funding at the pre- EHCP level) has been a key feature of Leeds provision for many years.

Transition away from this approach, since 2024, has led to an increased demand for Educational Health Care Needs Assessments (EHCNAs) and increased school and parental reliance on Education Health Care Plans (EHCPs).

The Experts at Hand offer will strengthen the capability of mainstream education schools/settings to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND more effectively and inclusively. It provides an effective route to access expert advice and support from education and health professionals including:

Working well

Local Authority additional investment of £5.5m over past 2 years has increased capacity in relation to SEND statutory service with a particular focus on Ep and casework capacity. This has resulted in a 150% increase in the number of EHCPs issued in 2025 compared to 2024.

Training and education: Training and coaching: Upskilling setting staff in targeted SEND approaches and interventions focused on presentation of need through training, observation, modelling and coaching alongside practitioners.

There will be an annual Cpd/training programme, coordinated and led by the Experts at Hand Leads. This will align with the national programme for training and SEND transformation intentions. There will also be resources, workshops and advice for parents/carers to support children and young people in home and community settings.

Although challenges remain, there are early signs of positive change. Output of EHCPs continues to increase and by the end of 2025 the statutory service had issued 1925 final EHCPs (a +151% increase).

Practitioners in early years settings are confident that they know how to access support when they need it. The virtual school has innovative programmes for pre-school children to meet each other and crucially develop early movement and speech skills.

This will map onto what schools/settings need, as identified through data analysis and an in-depth understanding of local issues and priorities. Advice: Providing expert advice, observation and minimal assessment will help settings identify needs earlier and strengthen inclusive practice.

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Local blueprint for the next 3 years

Where we are (a short summary of where you are now including a reflection on what is working well, what needs to change and the status of the enablers that underpin your system)

Where we will be in the next 3 years (a short summary of the vision for your local system in the next 3 years including the system enablers, reflecting how your Experts At Hand Offer model will underpin this vision, helping you scale and enhance what is working well and change what is not working so well)

Schools and settings value the support from Senit (SEND Inclusion Team), particularly the practical advice and the work they do directly with children and young people with SEND through outreach.

This will also support sharing of skills across the sector and priorities across the whole setting, cluster, locality will be effectively supported.

Direct delivery: Delivering direct SEND support through whole school, whole class, group, and time-limited individual interventions alongside setting staff. This will result in upskilling of school/setting staff in situ, therefore, putting skills on the front line so that children, young people and their families experience the best possible support.

Leeds has developed an Inclusive Mainstream Provision (Imp) approach as part of the Change Partnership Programme. This provides a clear standard for what should be ‘ordinarily available’ in all Leeds settings, reinforcing inclusive practice.

Through this approach, we will: This framework is supported by advisory services, the SEND audit tool, the Graduated Approach Toolkit and locality-based networks.

Meet the clinical needs of children and young people with medical conditions consistently, safely, and equitably across all educational settings.

Continue to improve waiting times and access to needs-led support for neurodiverse children and families before, during and after assessment, ensuring support is not dependent on diagnosis alone.

Map and understand assessment capacity across system (Lch and Rtc providers) for 26/27 and route cohorts into right place; numbers modelling, financial modelling and predicted impact on waiting lists.

Continuation of development of best practice information and resources across school settings.

Improve the quality, consistency and timeliness of health advice for Ehcna and EHCP reviews.

The development and roll out of the Imp in collaboration with schools demonstrates that work is beginning on inclusive strategies and practice in partnership with schools.

We have maintained our Area Inclusion Partnership arrangements with schools, resulting in consistently low permanent exclusion rates across the city. Mainstream schools have been given funding to commission provision to reduce exclusions and suspensions. SILCs also receive Partnership Funding to support those with more complex needs to access mainstream provision.

In social care, we will:

Areas for change

Have a Designated Social Care Officer to improve social work contributions to EHCPs and wider practice.

Improve the identification and recording of SEND within the Child in Need cohort.

Ensure children and young people with SEND and their families are prioritised and involved in the Family First and Best Start national programmes.

Have effective transition arrangements between children’s and adults’ services.

Overall, too many children and young people wait too long to have their needs assessed and EHCPs completed to timescale is amongst the lowest in the country (Leeds ranks 141 out of 151).

While Leeds’s current EHCP levels mean that there is ‘room to grow’ before it reaches national average, Leeds to be more equipped to support the upcoming volume of EHCPs. While the Ffi cohort is set to convert over 7 years, another critical source is the terminating of new Ffi plans.

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Local blueprint for the next 3 years

Where we are (a short summary of where you are now including a reflection on what is working well, what needs to change and the status of the enablers that underpin your system)

Where we will be in the next 3 years (a short summary of the vision for your local system in the next 3 years including the system enablers, reflecting how your Experts At Hand Offer model will underpin this vision, helping you scale and enhance what is working well and change what is not working so well)

Thus, every year, we expect ~300 additional EHCPs from children that would otherwise be supported by the now discontinued Ffi, to be issued an EHCP. We need to consider schools’ ability to support a fast-growing cohort of EHCPs, by really understanding if they are equipped with the right knowledge, skills and support.

Work will be done in partnership with the local authority and the Integrated Care Board taking key strategic roles to build on the Imp and inclusive practice to deliver a robust and ambitious offer to support mainstream education schools/settings to be fully inclusive. This means there is support and appropriate provision available across early years, primary, secondary, and post-16 settings.

Children and young people with SEND have lower overall attendance than their peers in the city. Leeds learners in secondary and special settings with SEND have lower attendance and higher levels of severe absence than the national average and the rates seen in similar areas.

Children and young people with an EHCP are more likely to be absent due to an authorised absence: e.g. for illness or appointments and more likely to be marked absent for 'exclusion'.

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Local blueprint for the next 3 years

Where we are (a short summary of where you are now including a reflection on what is working well, what needs to change and the status of the enablers that underpin your system)

Where we will be in the next 3 years (a short summary of the vision for your local system in the next 3 years including the system enablers, reflecting how your Experts At Hand Offer model will underpin this vision, helping you scale and enhance what is working well and change what is not working so well)

Building block 2: Access to specialist support and local placements

Where we are

Our SEND Sufficiency Strategy will guide plans for the development and expansion of Inclusion Bases (both Inclusion Support Bases and Inclusion Specialist Bases), ensuring capacity aligns with patterns of need and reduces reliance on specialist settings and out-of‑area placements.

We know that improvement is required for statutory functions and that some children and young people experience delays in initial assessment of needs. Children and young people who need an EHCP wait much longer in Leeds than those in other areas and in comparison, to the national average. Leeds is ranked 141st out of all LAs for the proportion of EHCPs completed to timescale (2024). Analysis has shown that over half of children and young people in Leeds wait over a year for their EHCP.

Alternative Provision (AP) will support children and young people with the most profound Semh needs through the Tiers of Provision approach, following development and implementation of proposals to collaboratively re-commission alternative provision to align with the 3-tier model.

This is also influenced by a long-standing system of allocating resources at the SEN support level, without the need for an EHCP. This is in transition phase and will enable us to get a more accurate understanding of the true extent of the level of statutory plans. An unintended consequence of historic practice is the pressure this will put on current capacity and may put on local places.

Best practice will be delivered through our Alternative Provision Specialist Taskforce (Apst) model.

Where there is a risk of instability, unsafe behaviour, disengagement, or contextual vulnerability that requires short-term, specialist, multi‑disciplinary intervention to stabilise, assess and reintegrate back into mainstream there will be improved joint commissioning. This will also be linked with fair access.

NHS waiting times key data show that there has been 43% growth in children and young people with SEND since 2016; leading to growth in Ehcna requests; growth in plans (+151% in 2025).

All children and young people waiting for neurodevelopmental assessment have access to a consistent needs-led offer, including advice, support, interventions and signposting appropriate to their presentation of need, before, during and after assessment.

Working well

NHS waiting times have been markedly improved over the past two years overall, e.g. a 70% reduction in the number waiting for mental health services. West Yorkshire Nd pathways investment of £23m has reduced the number of young people waiting more than a year for an Nd assessment.

The local area partnership will ensure equitable access to health provision across schools and localities, supported by agreed standards, quality assurance and joint commissioning arrangements.

Early help practitioners are inclusive and support vulnerable children and young people from hard-to-reach families. Within early help, SEND coordinators perform the important role of helping agencies to support children with emerging SEND needs.

An effective plan and process will be in place to identify and monitor children and young people experiencing long waits for health services, ensuring timely support, escalation where required and no adverse impact on health, wellbeing or educational participation. Health advice for EHCNAs and EHCP reviews will be timely, specific, outcome-focused and subject to routine quality assurance.

The local area partnership has maintained a low rate of permanent exclusion and suspension rates are reducing in secondary schools.

Page 12 of 86 Agencies work together to identify children and young people at risk, to target support through alternative provision.

Partners will develop a more integrated approach to Ot and Slt delivery, with clearer pathways, thresholds and interfaces between school-commissioned and NHS provision. Health services will work as part of an integrated neighbourhood-based system, with clearer pathways, thresholds and interfaces between education, health and care.

There are systems in place to monitor this through the Aip, which also offers outreach support to schools.

Areas for change/improvement

Children, young people and families will experience more consistent access to support, with strengthened collaboration between commissioned services, improved quality assurance and greater accountability for outcomes across the partnership. The workforce delivery model will consider the benefits of expert provision in settings versus deliverability and utilise the Balanced System Framework.

Despite improvements in waiting times, there are too many children, young people and families waiting for too long in some key areas. The main areas of concern where the 18-week target is not being met and a significant number are waiting over 6 months include:

Neurodevelopment Team: 1.6%.

Medication: 13.3%.

Mainstream Slt services are improving but still below where we would want them to be:76.3% were seen in timescale.

Antenatal contacts are also below target, despite improvements only 55% are achieved.

Joint commissioning of placements will continue to embed effective multi-agency decision-making, jointly with Health and Care partners, to improve joint funding for placements for children and young people.

There is some disparity of health services available according to geographic area and specific areas of need. We know that this needs to be addressed and we are working on improvements.

AP will be an integral part of the graduated approach of services settings can access. It will deliver support beyond the Universal, Targeted and Targeted Plus layers to provide an environment with enhanced therapeutic, relational and specialist behaviour support. The Apst model will be fully aligned with Experts at Hand and delivered to prevent children and young people’s needs escalating.

Experts at Hand funding will enhance existing routes to access specialist input, and the delivery model will be integrated with other services and offers, which are funded separately.

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Local blueprint for the next 3 years

Where we are (a short summary of where you are now including a reflection on what is working well, what needs to change and the status of the enablers that underpin your system)

Where we will be in the next 3 years (a short summary of the vision for your local system in the next 3 years including the system enablers, reflecting how your Experts At Hand Offer model will underpin this vision, helping you scale and enhance what is working well and change what is not working so well)

Building block 3: System leadership, local partnership collaboration and co- production

Where we are

Strengthened partnership accountability will be a key consistent feature and, as a result, efficient decision making will be enabled through a sound governance system, and improved oversight will lead to targeted development.

We have recently had a local area inspection (May 2026), which has confirmed our priority areas of work, with leadership and governance identified as an area of concern along with neurodevelopmental pathways and quality/timeliness of EHCPs. In addition, preparation for adulthood is also an area for improvement.

Leadership and governance will be embedded across the system and will hold the system to account, ensuring things remain on track.

The areas identified will be a key focus of the work we need to do to get better outcomes for children, young people and families.

Strengthening leadership and direct lines of accountability to deliver across the partnership will be an immediate focus to driving this development.

The partnership will have clear oversight of health improvement priority areas which intersect with delivery of the plan, including neurodevelopmental pathways, therapy services, the quality and timeliness of health contributions to EHCPs and delivery of EHCP recommendations.

Changes in the health sector, namely the substantial reduction in the Icb and the removal of Nhse, mean there is an inherent risk to the delivery of changes at pace as organisational and structural change impacts on the ability for progress to be made.

Providers will be collectively accountable for agreed outcomes, quality standards and delivery of improvement priorities.

Changes to the structure and lines of accountability for the SEND and AP improvement board have been made to provide robust governance in-line with the issues identified by the leadership within the LA and Icb and in-line with the priorities for robust governance as set-out by the DfE.

Lived experience through the voice of children, young people and parents/carers will be an embedded feature of how we shape the system.

Working well

The Voice, Change and Influence team will involve Cyp and parents and carers the SEND youth council, Pcf and partners from education, care, and health, in 2027 to develop the refresh of the Leeds 12 Wishes.

Better transition processes will be in place to ensure children and young people benefit from effective planning prior to key transitions. There will be effective multi-agency work, through joint panels, to support this.

Next steps to support the voice and influence of young people with SEND include:

SEND young people involved in youth voice programmes meet regularly with Chief Officer Learning and Inclusion and meet with decision makers.

All support offers, including Experts at Hand, will be more accessible.

‘Influence and Change’: services/decision makers recognising the importance of youth voice and using this to make change and report back to young people.

Page 14 of 86 Develop a youth voice offer for primary aged young people with SEND.

Communication channels will be strengthened and applied more consistently and the feedback loop (based on the 'you said, we did' approach will be embedded across the system.

Sendiass and the Vic team are working together with the Cultural Brokers Programme to develop videos for families in different languages, which will complement the existing suite of videos that we have.

Lived experiences of children, young people and parents/carers will be embedded into the transformed system so that their voice influences partnership working, current and future priorities. This includes all age phases and levels of need, from targeted, targeted plus and specialist. Mechanisms for gathering voice will be strengthened.

Communication is not viewed solely as information-sharing, but as a two-way process linked to participation, co-production and service improvement. There is strong evidence of significantly improved reach and engagement:

794% increase in unique Local Offer website visitors, from 4,046 (2020) to 36,183 (2025).

317 parents/carers attended monthly drop-ins. (2025)

786 parents/carers attended Llo Live since 2022 (261% increase).

1,800 members in the Llo Facebook group, with additional public page reach.

649 parents/carers engaged through school and parent group coffee mornings (2025)

34 parent carer groups represented in the support group network.

672 members in Leeds Parent Carer Forum, with 1,000 Facebook followers.

880 children and young people on the Leeds Disability Register.

The voice of children, young people and parents/carers will be embedded in all aspects of Experts at Hand, SEND and AP related strategy and the programme to support inclusion across the local area.

The partnership will have clear oversight of which children and young people are attending AP, including those on part-time, flexible, or bespoke arrangements, so that timely intervention can take place when needed.

This demonstrates significantly increased awareness, reach and opportunities for families to access information and influence support.

Quality assurance for all aspects of the SEND and inclusion system will be embedded across the improvement programme, including EHCP quality, timeliness of advice and plan completion and delivery of provision.

Areas for change/improvement

Local Icb and provider leaders and staff are working hard to resolve the challenges in local waiting times which have led to significant improvements, but too many children wait for some specialist assessments from the NHS.

Best use will be made of collective resources and joint commissioning to respond to immediate needs and to deliver more long-term strategies to ensure a coordinated, needs-led and equitable approach.

New governance structures have been implemented but have not yet led to the necessary impact required to provide assurance that the local area partnership is working well.

Whilst there is good attendance at the newly formed SEND & AP Improvement Board, there needs to be strengthened governance structures that enable mechanisms for reporting and influencing the local area system.

We will adopt a minimum co-production benchmark (based on Nhse guidance) and self-assess against it in year one, identifying improvement actions where needed. This will delivered through adoption of the Four Cornerstones model.

The views of children, young people, parents/carers are valued and influence operational change but not yet influencing strategic decision making across the system. We know that quality assurance needs to be embedded across all aspects of the system to identify issues that need to be addressed in depth.

Page 15 of 86 There are increasing levels of parental challenge and escalation across formal dispute routes, reflecting both local system pressures and wider national trends within SEND and SEND tribunal volumes have increased significantly year by year: There will be meaningful co-production of services and ways of working. Children, young people and families will help shape the development, delivery and evaluation of Experts at Hand through this approach.

• 2024: 129 registered tribunals.
• 2025: 174 registered tribunals (35% increase).
• 2026 (to 7 April): 67 tribunals already logged.

Stakeholders will be well informed about service developments and how their contributions have influenced change and improvements. They will have the knowledge of and can navigate the local offer effectively and can access the range of support services and resources available in their communities.

In Leeds, mediation is provided by Collis Mediation Ltd. It is a free, less formal way of trying to reach an agreement and is accessible through the local offer.

Mediation activity demonstrates a clear link between decision making and subsequent tribunal challenges. It, therefore, operates as a critical gateway between local authority decisions and tribunal appeal, with a proportion of cases progressing to formal litigation where agreement cannot be reached.

Mediations and tribunals highlight the importance of quality decision making, clarity of rationale and early engagement in reducing escalation. and is an area that will be supported so that early work and support for children, young people and families reduce the need for statutory processes. This will be supported through Experts at Hand and existing services where a focus on prevention will be deployed.

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Local blueprint for the next 3 years

Where we are (a short summary of where you are now including a reflection on what is working well, what needs to change and the status of the enablers that underpin your system)

Where we will be in the next 3 years (a short summary of the vision for your local system in the next 3 years including the system enablers, reflecting how your Experts At Hand Offer model will underpin this vision, helping you scale and enhance what is working well and change what is not working so well)

Building block 4: Encouraging inclusive culture and behaviours

Where we are

Through the Experts at Hand offer there will be a high-quality programme of professional development, coaching and modelling delivered in partnership with staff in education settings. This will be promoted and developed through system leadership in trusts, clusters and localities.

Education providers and settings know children and young people well and make effective adjustments and adaptations, where required. Schools/settings are flexible in their approach and are reactive to finding ways to meet need when they are unable to access specialist services. This will be further enhanced and supported through the Experts at Hand offer.

Sector-led improvement will be a key feature in creating a strengthened workforce across all settings who will share expertise and best practice at a local level. This will be a more proactive, rather than reactive, approach as needs will be assessed earlier with an improved integrated response across provision. This will reduce reliance on diagnosis as the primary route to support, as needs will be identified and met earlier, while ensuring children and young people are supported to access timely assessment where required.

Working well

Children and young people benefit from knowledgeable and skilled health practitioners. There is good use of alerts to identify reasonable adjustments, making health services more accessible. Work of community paediatrician’s and the 0-19 service are based on good relationships and work well.

There will be improved early years identification, notification, intervention and transition support, enabling needs to be recognised and addressed before escalation. This will enable joint working to prevent the need for escalation to EHC needs assessment and, where required, carry out direct work to target transition points into primary school.

Areas for change/improvement

Outcomes for young people with SEND starting adulthood are poor. The proportion of young people in Leeds that have a 'sustained destination' (stay in their new course or employment) is markedly lower than benchmarks.

The partnership will have improved transition for children and young people, between children’s and adults’ services in health, education and social care. This will be delivered through effective strategy in relation to preparing children and young people with SEND for preparation for adulthood from the earliest years. Preparing for adulthood will be embedded from the earliest years, supporting independence, participation, employment and community inclusion.

Despite attendance for most children and young people being good, children and young people with SEND have lower overall attendance than their peers in the city. Leeds learners in secondary and special settings with SEND have lower attendance and higher levels of severe absence than the national average and the rates seen in similar areas.

Working closely with Specialist inclusive learning centres and inclusion bases and Experts at Hand teams, attendance will improve for children and young people with SEND through earlier identification and support for emerging needs.

Children and young people with an EHCP are more likely to be absent due to an authorised absence: e.g. for illness or appointments and more likely to be marked absent due to 'exclusion' and this requires a focus.

Page 17 of 86 Local blueprint for the next 3 years Where we are (a short summary of where you are now including a reflection on what is working well, what needs to change and the status of the enablers that underpin your system) Where we will be in the next 3 years (a short summary of the vision for your local system in the next 3 years including the system enablers, reflecting how your Experts At Hand Offer model will underpin this vision, helping you scale and enhance what is working well and change what is not working so well) Enabler 1: Resource management and improvement

Where we are

Ongoing review and development of a clear SEND financial strategy will ensure financial decision making is strategic and appropriate will result in better grip on the high needs block and other funding streams related to grant funding.

In line with the national picture, Leeds has experienced an increase in SEND demand and complexity in recent years, with this trend expected to continue. Leeds has historically been underfunded in comparison to some other local authorities, and although the National Funding Formula funds local authorities based on need, there is a gains limit factor applied to funding increases. Between 2018/19 and 2025/26 this resulted in Leeds receiving £30.56m less for High Needs than would have been due under the full National Funding Formula.

There will be stronger oversight of all Dsg spending, and this will be aligned with mitigations planning, which is done in advance to avoid escalating cost pressures. Joint commissioning will be a key feature in all planning for spend around SEND and AP.

Despite the stand still funding for 2026/27, there is still an anticipated increase in special school places and children and young people eligible for additional top-up funding. This means that there is a significant funding pressure against the High Needs Block which cannot be met from the funding available and therefore a deficit high needs budget will be required for 2026/27.

The number of EHCPs are increasing in the city and the complexity of needs of children and young people with SEND is also increasing. Although Leeds still has statistically lower numbers of EHCPs than comparators, the city has seen increases in the numbers of EHCPs, particularly during 2025, and it the gap between Leeds and the national average has narrowed as a result.

As a result of effective mitigating actions, more children and young people will have their needs met within local provision that is more able to meet needs. This includes preparation for adulthood and getting young people ready for post education opportunities.

Working well

There are regular Schools’ Forum meetings, and this enables a good level of oversight of the dedicated school’s grant. In January 2026, an initial report on the Dsg Management Plan was presented to Schools Forum. This report identified reasons for the current deficit position and identified several potential issues to be addressed to generate savings to the high needs block. This work is ongoing.

Securing collaboration and financial commitment from partner agencies where appropriate, ensuring fair contributions to support and provision will lead to more effective joint commissioning and keeping locality needs under review.

Areas for change

Building on the data template, revised forecast is in the same magnitude of increase in EHCP numbers, with a sharper initial increase that slows down towards 2029. This new method analyses growth in EHCP demand, transitions from Ffi and backlogs separately, which means the recent spike is not carried forward into future years. Results suggest a potential 60% increase in EHCPs from 2025 – 29 (aligns with original projection) and highlights the pressure Leeds will be facing.

Resource allocation related to EHCPs will be effective, fair and transparent. This will ensure that the right resources are in place to meet the needs of individual children and young people.

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Currently, Leeds ranks 101 among England LAs for SEN transport cost per EHCP (for comparison, Manchester ranks 27 and Sheffield 76). SEN transport’s wider effects on young people are often overlooked, e.g. young people who cannot travel independently will find challenges in seeking employment, leading to Neet. We need to review the impact of demand expected in the transformation period to ensure that SEN transport is targeted and sustainable.

Projected # of Cyp on SEN transport above current levels 252 465 678 2026 2027 2028 2029 Rationale for allocation of funding for EHCPs needs further review, which will likely result in identified improvements. Focus on this area is required to fully explore the mitigating actions that need to be taken to address funding pressures. Work with Silc heads on developing a new resource allocation system (SEND banding) alongside SEND Matrix of Need work is also planned.

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Additional high level cost avoidance (potential)

Cumulative cost avoidance (potential)

Focus area Actions Impact

Develop shared pathways into adulthood, supporting young people (14-25yrs) to access appropriate education and training and ensure a planned transition into employment, independent living, or identified next step in adult life.

Preparation for adulthood

More diverse range of pathways could potentially result in a reduction in Neet and EOTAS.

Potential opportunities that require more analysis

Develop post-16 pathways. Improved commissioning arrangements with post-16 providers, to address gaps in provision and reduce reliance on out of local area providers. Development of pathways will target addressing the number of young people aged 16-25 who are currently in ‘Education Other Than at School’ (EOTAS).

Review the effectiveness of the current funding system for SEND and AP and revise, based on findings and analysis of current spend.

Funding Review

Improved funding model that aligns with the needs of children and young people.

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Local blueprint for the next 3 years

Where we are (a short summary of where you are now including a reflection on what is working well, what needs to change and the status of the enablers that underpin your system)

Where we will be in the next 3 years (a short summary of the vision for your local system in the next 3 years including the system enablers, reflecting how your Experts At Hand Offer model will underpin this vision, helping you scale and enhance what is working well and change what is not working so well)

Enabler 2: Capital investment strategy across Ey, mainstream, Fe

Where we are

There will be a collaborative approach with schools/settings to ongoing commissioning of locality-based resources. Capital investment will be aligned with the Experts at Hand model, ensuring specialist environments are complemented by access to advice, intervention and workforce support. This will enable better response to the needs of children and young people with SEND, including at the locality level. This should result in a flexible approach to creating specialist provision that is reflective and innovative in approach.

The current SEND Sufficiency Strategy sets out how Leeds will plan, commission and deliver the right mix of provision to meet the needs of Cyp aged 0-25. It is shaped by strong partnerships across education, health, care, voluntary organisations and families, and informed by the voices of children and young people. The Strategy supports the council’s Area Based Planning approach by ensuring SEND provision is considered alongside mainstream place planning as part of Area Based Reviews. It aligns with the Leeds Children and Young People's Plan, the SEND and Inclusion Strategy, Child Friendly Leeds 12 Wishes, Schools White Paper: Every child achieving and thriving and the wider Leeds Ambition to tackle inequality and create a compassionate, fair and inclusive city.

Through the capital programme, service level agreements and service specifications will include quality assurance systems to ensure environments are high-quality. Provision will be planned to use locality-level analysis to ensure equitable access across the city.

As of January 2026, the city maintains 3,336 specialist places, spanning Silc, partnership provisions, (current) resourced provisions, non‑maintained and independent special schools, and specialist post‑16 settings. It is essential that the maintained specialist provision estate evolves in a planned, sustainable and equitable way.

New provision will be developed alongside clear quality standards and workforce support to ensure children and young people receive consistent experiences regardless of locality.

To support mainstream inclusion and maximise opportunities from the earliest years, the SEND Sufficiency Strategy will also set out how the council will meet the specialist inclusion needs of our youngest children through a clear plan for early years’ provision. This will include exploring the potential to establish inclusion bases within our council led Little Owls nurseries, school- based nurseries and the Pvi sector.

Early intervention and investment within key initiatives and Experts at Hand may lessen expansion needs in Inclusion Specialist Bases and Specialist Provision estates.

The capital values input onto the data template are for current and planned schemes which the Hnca has been committed to deliver. There is also £9.4m in Alternative Places Grant (Special Free School replacement) included, which will be reallocated to future Inclusion Bases (to be identified). The SEND and AP sufficiency strategy requires review and updating to reflect the transformation period and further detailed analysis of the level of need.

Accessibility and a focus on participation in learning, sensory regulation, development of independence and resilience in children and young people will be at the heart of the new system. This will build on universal and targeted provision to meet needs.

There will be less reliance on Inmss and the social cost of being away from their local community will be lessened for children and young people. This will ensure that young people will be able to take advantage of the opportunities for education, employment and training through a naturally local offer.

Working well

Through recent developments, we have grown specialist education provision with 600 additional places created (1 new special school, 2 new specialist satellite sites; 138 new Resource Provision places; 20 Partnerships Provision places).

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Areas for change

Despite some progress, due to ongoing analysis of need across the city, the sufficiency strategy needs to be revisited to ensure it can deliver the required level of placements in mainstream Specialist Inclusion Bases.

Central to our sufficiency planning is ensuring the right balance of specialist provision in Leeds, supported by appropriate investment in the local authority– maintained specialist estate. This includes Specialist Inclusion Learning Centres (Silc) including partnership provision and satellite sites) and resourced provision that will transition into Inclusion Specialist Bases. Nationally, around 30.4% of children and young people with an EHC plan are educated in specialist provision. Applying this benchmark locally suggests that, as Leeds moves toward an approximate 13,000 EHC plans, the system would require 3,952 specialist places to remain aligned with national expectations. This represents an emerging benchmark range to invest in 616 places across our maintained Silc and Inclusion Specialist Base estates (for the children with the most complex severe and profound needs) over the next five years alongside key reform proposals:

• A mainstream‑first system with early, evidence‑based support available without an EHCP alongside the development of Inclusion Support Bases.
• Experts at Hand, bringing speech and language therapists, EPs and other specialists into mainstream settings to prevent escalation.
• Significant expansion of Inclusion Specialist Bases in mainstream to support children locally.

Our analysis/forecast identifies a continued rise in the quantity and complexity of children and young people with SEND, resulting in increasing demand for specialist placements, particularly for children and young people with autism, social, emotional and mental health needs, and those requiring more specialist support.

While we recognise that the volume projections are evolving, as we do deeper analysis, we want to use the split between the five main areas, which gives us an estimation of where children and young people who need specialist bases will be located. This will keep placements as local as possible and avoid transport costs.

Analysis highlights gaps in local specialist capacity and the need to reduce reliance on Inmss placements by expanding provision within the city, wherever possible. This evidence has informed our planned capital investment and place development proposals, which are intended to:

Demand growth by area (estimated and requires further analysis as part of sufficiency review)

• Increase local capacity in the areas of highest need.

Improve access to suitable placements closer to home (including location within the city (see data in opposite column).

• Ensure future provision is better aligned to forecast demand.

2026 2027 2028 2029

Dropping rolls in some mainstream schools, due to population changes, are creating opportunities to repurpose accommodation for Specialist Inclusion Bases, enabling the city to increase localised capacity that is both responsive to demographic change and aligned with identified SEND sufficiency pressures.

East Northeast Northwest

South West Total

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Local blueprint for the next 3 years

Where we are (a short summary of where you are now including a reflection on what is working well, what needs to change and the status of the enablers that underpin your system)

Where we will be in the next 3 years (a short summary of the vision for your local system in the next 3 years including the system enablers, reflecting how your Experts At Hand Offer model will underpin this vision, helping you scale and enhance what is working well and change what is not working so well)

Enabler 3: Workforce

Where we are

Development of a SEND Learning Hub will ensure there will be an embedded focus on training and development to improve workforce skills and knowledge to have a positive impact on outcomes for children and young people. In turn, this will embed inclusive practice so that sustainability of finance in the longer term is also of benefit.

Workforce is an area that requires a strategic approach, which is not yet developed. Because of this, there remains a gap between the expectations of the partnership and what is currently in place. Stable leadership across the partnership will be key to driving this forward.

The approach will include:

Developing a local area graduated response

Training, mentoring and networking opportunities for school SENCos.

Conferences and learning activities/events across the city.

Effective SENCo handbooks and toolkits.

High quality induction training across the SEND & AP system.

Training for key transitions.

Implementation of an online portal for practitioners and families to access bitesize learning at their own pace.

The involvement of education leaders and providers will be vital to ensure that inclusive practice is consistently embedded across education provision.

We have many different roles and functions serving our children and young people in our different settings. Whilst there is some joined up working there is ample opportunity for improvements. There needs to be better workforce planning across sectors to build additional capacity and resilience within team.

Through the Experts at Hand approach there will be a high-quality programme of professional development, coaching, modelling and support alongside practitioners across SEND and inclusion. This will be developed and promoted in collaboration with system leadership in trusts, clusters and localities.

Currently ad hoc SEND training is provided for health services but plans to embed a training framework across all health services are held by the Dco. This needs to be implemented.

Health providers are available to support training as appropriate but there is no consistent approach to delivery. The appointment of a dedicated social care officer (Desco) needs to be actioned to support workforce development.

There will be stronger multi-disciplinary working between education, health and care professionals, including joint delivery, shared learning and professional development and coordinated support for settings.

Workforce planning will ensure implementation of Experts at Hand strengthens early intervention while maintaining statutory and specialist service capacity. Workforce development will support improvements in the quality and consistency of statutory advice, assessment and planning.

Working well

All SEND teams work in a restorative manner with children, young people, families, and settings, in accordance with their consultative roles.

There will be improved work with education settings to widen recruitment processes that allow for recruitment of support workers/assistance from the school/setting community and those with lived experience rather than sole reliance on formal qualifications.

A strengths-based and needs-led approach is at centre of the SEND teams’ reflective practice, with a view to all teams providing a high challenge/high support approach to their engagement with learning partners.

Page 25 of 86 In the 2024/25 Annual SENCo evaluation survey 94% of SENCOs were very satisfied (48%) or satisfied (46%) with the service received from the One SEND Service. Positive impact was rated high; 93% for training, 96% for resources, 83% for setting focused work and 98% for individual pupil focused work.

Because of training and Cpd provided through Experts at Hand, there will be a skilled workforce that supports sharing of expertise and joint accountability at a locality level. This will lead to sector-leading improvement across all aspects of SEND. A consistent SEND learning and development framework will be embedded across health, education and care.

Expertise will increasingly be deployed within mainstream settings through locality-based teams, enabling earlier support and building confidence in the workforce closest to children and young people.

Areas for change

Strategy to identify and bridge gaps between current and required future workforce needs to be developed to meet strategic goals and objectives. This will focus on establishing the impact of national inclusion standards, upskilling the education workforce through targeted development pathways, and creating standardised digital individual support plans.

Ultimately, we intend to support delivery of a workforce that will be equipped with the skills, knowledge and confidence to meet a wider range of needs through evidence-based training to support high-quality inclusive and adaptive teaching. A drive for high expectations by setting clear and demanding standards and holding them to account will foster a culture of responsibility and commitment to ensure that the partnership sees things through.

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Local blueprint for the next 3 years

Where we are (a short summary of where you are now including a reflection on what is working well, what needs to change and the status of the enablers that underpin your system)

Where we will be in the next 3 years (a short summary of the vision for your local system in the next 3 years including the system enablers, reflecting how your Experts At Hand Offer model will underpin this vision, helping you scale and enhance what is working well and change what is not working so well)

Enabler 4: Data, digital and technology (Note: Before submitting the SEND reform plan, cross reference across different areas, i.e. performance, finance and service held data, has enabled some outstanding issues around data quality to be resolved. Following submission of the reform plan, there will be further work to improve the quality of data management systems and bring this together in a more coordinated and systematic way. A digital workstream will drive forward the identified improvements. An improved system for recording key data will allow better analysis to target forecasting more accurately and support mitigations.

Where we are

The partnership will have strengthened multi-agency data sharing across health, education and social care. To ensure a better overview of provision, including AP, and resources, improve accountability, and help measure impact so that children and young people with SEND are well known to services and monitored effectively.

A SEND dataset/vital Signs (name not yet agreed) is being developed to enable the SEND & AP Partnership Improvement Board to be able to monitor progress on the delivery of SEND improvement priorities. Data is informing the JSNA section on disabled children and young people and work is underway to align the data knowledge to inform joint commissioning decisions. Data analysis has been used to inform the development of the SEND Sufficiency Strategy so support the creation of increased specialist provision across the city, including resource provision as well as special school places.

There will be a deeper understanding of system development needs through:

Working well

The partnership has a strong and increasingly mature approach to, combining performance, intelligence, lived experience, operational oversight and partnership governance to understand whether provision is making a difference for children and young people with SEND. Leaders increasingly recognise that assurance is not solely about monitoring compliance or levels of activity, but about understanding impact, identifying emerging needs and using that intelligence to drive improvement.

A more holistic child-centred performance view.

Strengthened integrated data and analytics across agencies.

Improved granularity of analysis to better identify and address challenges.

Strengthened governance insight and challenge.

Embedded voice and lived experience as assurance.

Delivery of the medium-term data maturity programme, including technical and governance infrastructure.

Our self-evaluation is that this is an area of developing strength, particularly in the use of shared data, partnership oversight and growing analytical maturity. The partnership has strong strategic understanding of need and risk, increasingly robust operational performance intelligence and growing ambition around integrated data and child-centred analytics.

Areas for change/improvement

Next steps for change means that integration of data and reporting across health, education and social care needs improvement and better alignment. Data is collected at the health level, but work is required to bring this together to support understanding of gaps and ensure that the correct provision is available in right place at right time. The SEND Improvement Board needs to be able to quickly identify if an area or communication streams are performing well. At the statutory service level, data related to statutory functions still relies on outdated methods, e.g. use of spreadsheets. This doesn’t allow for robust monitoring and review and requires improvement.

Performance data will be effective in highlighting where performance needs to be improved and trajectories for at least five years in advance will be a key feature of our planning. This will enable effective oversight of support needs, demand and provision within our system.

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Local blueprint for the next 3 years

Where we are (a short summary of where you are now including a reflection on what is working well, what needs to change and the status of the enablers that underpin your system)

Where we will be in the next 3 years (a short summary of the vision for your local system in the next 3 years including the system enablers, reflecting how your Experts At Hand Offer model will underpin this vision, helping you scale and enhance what is working well and change what is not working so well)

Enabler 5: Quality assurance Individual organisations/services have separate quality assurance processes in place. There is opportunity to explore a system-wide quality assurance framework.

Systems will be in place to independently quality assure all AP, providing a reliable understanding of its availability, effectiveness, and impact across Leeds. As a result, there will be better oversight of children and young people accessing AP.

Systematic, system wide proactive processes of monitoring and evaluating services to ensure they meet established standards, safety requirements, and regulatory expectations through service level agreements/specifications will be put in place.

Auditing systems (people, processes, and premises) rather than just reviewing outcomes, will foster safer, child -centred care.

Effective quality assurance systems across the whole SEND and AP system will be in place leading to better oversight of the priorities around vulnerable groups, e.g. EOTaS, Ehe, Cme. .

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3. What is the local area partnership’s strategy for delivering on the above?

A summary of your local system’s theory of change or reform strategy. Reflect on the output of your Local Partnership Maturity Assessment Tool, particularly your Local System ‘change story.’

Using a theory of change approach, our strategy for implementation of the reforms, has been developed through partnership collaboration and coproduction. A full Theory of Change overview is available to provide further detail, but the main elements included:

Aims: The new offer is designed to strengthen the capability of mainstream education settings to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND, by providing a new route to access expert advice and support from education and health professionals.

Inputs and actions: Additional capacity for delivery of Experts at Hand has been assessed.

Outputs: Additional capacity related to the Experts at Hand model will map onto and align with existing services. These services will require review to identify re-design, e.g. of the existing delivery model, to ensure a comprehensive and joined up system is enabled, including training, whole school/setting development, advice and support for individual children, young people and families.

Change mechanism: Working with local area partners to design delivery of the offer to all schools/settings, colleges and other post-16 providers that young people attend, including out of area.

Outcomes: There will be a defined route for mainstream education settings to access specialist support, including from a range of experts with specialisms in education and health, including, Specialist Teachers, Education Psychologists, Speech and Language Therapists, Occupational therapists and outreach from specialist and alternative provision settings.

Impacts: Our changed system will be flexible to respond to future changes. Tangible results are shown in our theory of change design stage (overview below).

See completed copy of the Local Partnership Maturity Assessment Tool and Theory of Change overview.

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Page 34 of 86 Experts at Hand will not replicate or replace targeted interventions, but will enhance them through these specialist functions, designed to identify and support needs, including:

• Specialist consultation and formulation.
• Workforce development and coaching.
• Consultation, modelling and system coaching.
• Joint education/health input, where appropriate, with Icb partnership.
• Providing support for children and young people, which can be accessed without the need for an EHCP.
• Reducing over reliance on statutory processes.

Evidenced early intervention approaches focused on speech and language, e.g. Elsec and Neli, learning through Pins for autism and learning through the Apst model for social, emotional and mental health difficulties (Semh), will be deployed, based on the needs of clusters of schools.

*See Theory of Change design stage overview for more details.

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Experts at Hand: high-level model overview (likely to evolve following design stage)

Leeds Pcf: Joint delivery of parent programmes with parents/carers Multi-agency/disciplinary approach to joint working Parent/carer navigators.

for complex needs Core offer Available to all schools/settings (Tbd Outreach support for individual children and Parent programmes and family support, young people e.g. Hi/Vi for specific Ey &

Specialist Teachers

P16). Targeted offer: Related assessed and evidenced locality

(centrally based and commissioned from special schools/AP) Modelling of interventions, alongside TAs Training, advice and guidance

Experts at Hand

needs. Multi agency/

SEND 0-25 Front door: Triage through centrally based

disciplinary: Education, health and

• Whole school support and guidance using a co- production and coaching model.
• Individual child and young person support.
• Programmes and packagers to support children and young people (whole school, groups and individual).
• Training/advice for settings and parents/carers.
• Individual support for children and young people, including for onward referral to specialist services.

Occupational

care, including links

Therapists

coordination to community teams:

with Best Start in Life/Family hubs.

1: East/Northeast 2: West/Northwest 3:South Core offer available to

Governance: Locality boards

Advanced Practitioner S&Lt Speech & Language

including school/setting reps,

parents/carers and education, health and

Therapists S&Lt Assistants

all. Targeted offer, based on assessed

care services. Performance: Locality plan for all

need, for specific

HLTAs

clusters of schools/settings.

Whole school information, advice

Targeted support in areas including standardised metrics areas of need and guidance used to monitor

Education Psychologists

effectiveness.

Experts at Hand Designated

Leads:

Resources: Allocation of funding for specific, targeted needs in each locality.

Individual support for Contribution to statutory processes

• Coordinate working.
• Monitor performance.
• Report on outcomes.
• Enable effective relationships across partners.

children and young people Links with wider services. Influencing health pathways. Developing support whilst waiting.

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Grand Total £6,617,120

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4. What is the local area partnership roadmap for the next 3 years?

Reflecting on the broad timescales and expectation for deliverables set out in the Schools White Paper, key documents and core minimum requirements set out in this document, please provide a high-level roadmap for the next 3 years. Please highlight key milestones and a trajectory to the target metrics identified above, including leading indicators.

In the 2026-27 column please reference how you plan to meet the core minimum requirements in your narrative, including details and evidence in supporting documents.

You can insert or upload supporting documents including graphics/visuals that illustrate your data trajectory.

Page 40 of 86 Experts at Hand: Design stage: Implement Experts at Hand joint commissioning group to fully design and agree delivery, accountability, performance expectations and standard operating procedures. Review current service capacity, design and structure to ensure Experts at Hand works in alignment and creates professional additionality, i.e. EPs, S&Lt, Ot and specialist teachers. Work with schools/settings, parents/carers to design the offer. Develop a special schools and specialist SENCos outreach model to facilitate supporting children and young people with SEND in mainstream provision. Offer early intervention to children at the targeted plus level to reduce the need for EHCPs, including implementation of programmes to support speech, language and communication needs. Establish multi-agency quality assurance process for health advice to EHCNAs and annual reviews, including agreed standards and audit processes, to support both statutory and non-statutory services, and Expert at Hand offers. School based support for speech, language and communication needs will be provided. This will include group interventions, training, upskilling staff, modelling interventions, assessing whole school/setting inclusive practice and working with parents/carers. Direct work to deliver Slcn programmes will be carried out by assistants, under the direction of therapists.

Design whole school audits and make available to schools/settings who have identified challenges relating to SEND and inclusion. Support will build on what is already available, e.g. the Inclusive Mainstream Practice approach, developed as part of the change programme. Develop joined up offer of earlier, psychologically informed intervention. Experts at Hand: Delivery stage: Review effectiveness of year one delivery of Experts at Hand (design and initial implementation stage). Deliver year two of Experts at Hand, strengthening early intervention services and work with schools/settings to build an inclusive culture, so that more children and young people’s needs are met within mainstream education. Roll out enhances training/Cpd schedule for all SEND sector partners. Enhance early intervention, effective outreach, school improvement and targeted training to enable increased numbers of children and young people with EHCPs to be successfully supported in mainstream settings. Routine audit and reporting of health advice quality and timeliness. Strengthening early years support for speech, language and communication needs, consistent with the White Paper’s shift to earlier intervention and Individual Support Plans (ISPs). Develop better outcomes measures across services, building on early work of NHS use of Goal Based Outcomes.

Year three delivery of Experts at Hand to strengthening transition pathways into further education and expanding advisory and outreach support. This is consistent with our ambition to ensure that mainstream settings can meet a broader range of needs earlier and more effectively through predictable local support and stronger multi‑agency Embedding consistent inclusive practice through the Team Around the School approach, as part of Experts at Hand, and Imp, aligning with the expectation that mainstream settings can access rapid, specialist support without delay. Initiating long‑term development of clearer specialisms within SILCs, supporting coherence with forthcoming national Specialist Provision packages.

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Page 42 of 86 Agree key performance reporting metrics to provide assurance that there is a support plan for all children and young people with the longest waits. Review and agree placement policy with children and adult's social care to ensure there is clarity around transitions and preparation for adulthood.

Review comparable LAs’ to ascertain the most effective Ep: child/young person ratio to develop commissioning model to plan for the growth of Ep workforce (in alignment with growth in demand). Implement needs-led Nd support offer across Leeds.

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5. What will the local area partnership deliver in the first year?

Please outline the key workstreams, milestones and trajectory your local area partnership will deliver and achieve in 2026-27 as well as how you plan to spend the investment allocation that will help fund this year’s delivery. Please share key milestones and anticipated dates, success measures, cost breakdown and category. These should incorporate the core minimum requirements, be mapped to the building blocks above and should reflect a more detailed trajectory to the narrative, milestones and target metrics outlined in the 2026-27 column above.

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Page 53 of 86 Review costs of SEND transport, including cost of supporting health needs on transport (Enabler 1).

Review of costs carried out and actions recommend- ed.

Carry out SEND transport diagnostics, i.e. what are the key issues and what could potentially be changed, e.g. grouping by school/ bus routes (Enabler 1).

Areas of improveme nt identified.

Analyse public transport alternatives, e.g. commissioning arrangements (Enabler 1).

Commissio ning of alternative transport support and arrangeme nts agreed.

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6. How will the local area partnership deliver the first-year plan?

Please set out how you will ensure the required capacity and capability is in place from organisational corporate functions to support implementation of the plan. This could include reference to how you plan to build or bring in project delivery capability to manage delivery against the plan, support prioritisation, and effective use of resources; and how you plan to build the capacity and capability in data and analytics to support effective tracking against the measures in the plan and reporting that informs decision making.

Year one delivery will be undertaken through dedicated programme management with clear and regular governance and oversight. A dedicated Transformation Project Team will be established, led by a senior responsible officer and supported by transformation capacity. This will provide effective oversight on implementation of the reforms, including through existing governance structures and new workstreams linked to key building blocks.

Project management will include performance monitoring, risk management, and regular reporting to the Local Area SEND Partnership Board and the wider council and Icb governance systems. Exceptions reporting will be a high priority so that any slippage can be addressed as early as possible and mitigated against. Prioritisation will be on financial recovery and sustainability, ensuring inclusion, early intervention and reducing an escalation of need that often culminates into high-cost placements.

Targeted investment will ensure workforce capacity to deliver the programme. There will be investment in enablers including, finance, digital, project management and data capability. This will include development of a shared multi-agency SEND/Inclusion dashboard, enabling real-time tracking for key indicators, e.g. AP, exclusions, EHCP demand, performance, placement trends and financial sustainability.

Organisational functions, including finance, Hr and commissioning, will be integrated into the programme to support workforce planning, resource allocation and joint commissioning.

There will be post creation to support the Experts at Hand model. This will be area based so that unique communities have a targeted offer. This will include deployment of specialists to work closely with schools, strengthening specialist outreach and aligning existing services around locality-based working.

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7. Other funding Local Authorities.

Block transfers: If you have made a block transfer (Schools Block to High Needs Block) for 26-27, please set out how your plans for this funding align with the activities outlined above.

In financial year 2025/26 Leeds School’s Forum approved a transfer to high needs block, totalling £3.824m. Essentially, this was to mitigate high needs budget pressure targeted at supporting inclusion, including support for services such as specialist teacher teams.

The high needs block is under considerable pressure due to increasing demographic growth, demand and complexity of children and young people’s needs. The transfer arose, because of pressures on the budget. Medium-term forecasting indicates continued pressure on the high needs block. In November 2025, at the time of agreeing the transfer, spending on the high needs block was forecast to be £24.653m more than the funding available for 2025/26. Reasons for this include:

The number of EHCPs increasing; although Leeds still has statistically lower numbers of EHCPs than comparators, the city has seen increases of EHCPs, particularly during 2025, and it is anticipated that the gap between Leeds and the national average may have narrowed as a result.

In January 2025, there were 6,100 EHCPs, of which 154 children and young people attended an Independent Non-Maintained Special School (Inmss), funded by the LA. This represented 2.5% of the cohort.

As of January 2026, there were 7,485 EHCPs. Of these, 230 children and young people were placed in Inmss, funded by the LA. This represented 3% of the cohort.

Overall, this reflects a 0.5 percentage point increase in the proportion of children and young people accessing LA funded Inmss provision between January 2025 and January 2026 (a 49% increase from 154 to 230).

Page 60 of 86 Capital: We have announced at least £3 billion in high needs capital between 2026-27 and 2029-30 to support children and young people (Cyp) with SEND, or those requiring alternative provision (AP). This funding is intended to support place delivery across the full 0-25 age range, including early years and post-16. We expect funding to support the following outcomes: a. Inclusion at the core of high needs sufficiency strategy, resulting in more children and young people with SEND accessing suitable places in mainstream settings, across all phases of education b. Every child or young person who needs a place in an inclusion base can access one c. Fewer children and young people with SEND needing to travel a long way to access a suitable placement d. Improved suitability of the mainstream estate to support children and young people with SEND, with adaptations to improve inclusivity and accessibility of the physical environment We also welcome innovative uses of high needs capital to drive inclusion, for example, investment in assistive technology for use in mainstream settings.

Please outline your strategy for how this funding will meet the outcomes above, with reference to the core minimum requirements and other workstreams in this reform plan where appropriate. We would like to see detail around your plans to increase capacity for inclusion bases (formerly known as SEN units, resourced provision and pupil support units – Su/Rp/PSUs), such as schools, colleges or early years providers identified, engagement with relevant settings and trusts, and target cohort of needs.

If your plans include increases to places in special schools or specialist post-16 institutions, please include a clear rationale, showing the need that is being met, and why it cannot be met through other types of provision, such as inclusion bases.

If you are receiving additional capital funding to replace one or more planned special or AP free schools, please set out how this funding will meet need in your area, and plans for engaging relevant trusts in your sufficiency planning.

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• Inclusion at the core of high needs sufficiency strategy, resulting in more children and young people with SEND accessing suitable

places in mainstream settings, across all phases of education. This will also contribute to financial stability.

a.1. Our strategy is to ensure systemic control, toward planned capital growth that prioritises local solutions over costly independent placements. This will strengthen mainstream inclusion by equipping settings to meet a broader range of needs earlier, while expanding high-quality Specialist Inclusion Bases where it is most required, as identified by robust data and analysis of demographics across the city. This includes demonstrating expected changes to travel distances, journey times, and reliance on out of area placements, including travel related mitigations. Delivering this relies on a unified, multi-agency approach that includes effective partnerships with MATs, including exploring opportunities created by falling rolls.

• Every child or young person who needs a place in an inclusion base can access one

b.1. We plan to allocate approximately £14.4m to the creation of specialist bases across the local area to build on the existing network created to date. We expect this to be able to deliver bases in around 12 more settings, including post 16 and Early Years, so that there are sufficient bases across all districts. The additional funding reallocated from the planned special free school, will be alternatively invested into the creation of inclusion bases.

• Fewer children and young people with SEND needing to travel a long way to access a suitable placement

c.1. Too many children and young people with SEND who require a special school cannot attend the specialist setting closest to them. There also remain gaps in provision for children and young people who have Semh needs and require a specialist setting. Because of this, there is reliance on independent special schools which children, and young people often travel significant distances to access, also adding transport implications.

c.2. Therefore, alongside the development of specialist inclusion bases, work is needed to ensure that all special schools in Leeds can support the full range of children and young people with complex SEND. We are creating provision to avoid this by working with our existing special schools to expand in areas of significant place pressure, as part of two planned rebuild projects. We also want to develop additional satellite sites in mainstream schools for children and young people who need a more local solution. We plan to allocate approximately £27.67m for this purpose. Our focus is on creating specialist bases to create provision to alleviate the pressure on special school places and, in turn, alleviating the need for Inmss.

• Improved suitability of the mainstream estate to support children and young people with SEND, with adaptations to improve

inclusivity and accessibility of the physical environment

d.1. We plan to allocate funding towards mainstream settings, including nurseries, alternative provision and post 16, to ensure environments can support the needs of as many children and young people as possible. This will be through working in partnership with MATs and education leaders for the development of specialist bases and other environmental adaptations e.g. acoustic/lighting adaptations, sensory and regulation spaces and hygiene suites. Assistive technology is being explored, which can support children and young people to continue to access their mainstream classes and to support reintegration following exclusion and/or prolonged absence.

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8. System partner and stakeholder engagement, and co-production.

Please outline how the local area partnership plans to engage system partners and stakeholders to develop and implement the plan – include planned engagement with schools and early years settings, alternative providers, Fe and post-16 providers (including those your young people attend that are not within your local area), Parents and Carers and children and young people with SEND, with reference to the core minimum requirements. Consider changing roles and responsibilities in the context of the Schools White Paper and how you work collaboratively to manage the transition. Please indicate where additional support is required to engage partners or stakeholders - senior officials at the Department for Education will be available to contribute to summer term events with education leaders and parent carer forum leaders.

Leeds Pcf is active and advocates for the voice of parents/carers and is represented on the SEND & AP Partnership Improvement Board. The Pcf has for the first time recently received funding for part of 25/26 from the LA and funding has also been contributed by the Icb to support delivery of specific work in 25/26.

The Voice, Influence and Change Team has established a range of mechanisms to capture and strengthen the voice and influence of parents and carers. These include a network of parent carer support groups, three voice events held annually, and additional consultation activities designed to gather feedback from families.

The Voice, Influence and Transparency (Vit) Multiagency Working Group includes reps from Pcf and Carers Leeds, develops and publishes on Llo issue trackers which bring together themed concerns raised by children, young people and parents/carers. The group works collaboratively with services to review these issues, agree actions, and implement improvements aimed at enhancing the experiences of families. It also addresses key issues identified by children, young people and parents/carers raised via the Issues Trackers, which result in changes due to voice.

Colleagues from health (providers and the Icb) meet monthly with the Pcf to discuss feedback from parents and carers on health and to hear about developments. The Pcf needs to feel that they are being actively listened to by senior leaders and that this informs and shapes decisions across the partnership to reflect their lived experiences.

There is an established SEND Youth Council who continue to lead on engagement activities and develop campaigns and resources to improve awareness, services and our offer. The SEND & AP Partnership Improvement Board has an annual takeover event which is young person directed and led. The takeover events have demonstratable outcomes e.g. such as information events for Preparation for Adulthood, Give it a Go Events, Compass Housework experience annual programme. The Voice, Influence and Change Team work with pupil voices leads in all education settings, facilitates an annual SEND Summit to engage and consult with young people with SEND. The team also delivers targeted consultation activities, ensuring that views of children and young people are actively sought and inform service development.

To ensure co-production of the SEND system, all partners and stakeholders will be part of the transformation through:

The experiences of children and young people with SEND being a focus to support transformation of the system, with a particular focus on PfA, including transitions and the impact of moving from children to adults’ services.

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Ongoing collaboration in strategic boards, workstreams and specific areas of work with Leeds Pcf (including securing sustainability and growth of the Pcf through transformation funding).

Engagement with schools/settings through sector leadership strategic partnerships, including Ey, primary, secondary, p-16/19 representative groups with further emphasis on more reach for those working on the ground/front line.

• SENCo networks and events.
• Links with regional neighbours to coordinate approaches to delivery of Experts at Hand.
• Working groups for specific areas of development will seek representation from all partners, depending on the purpose and scope.

To develop the SEND reform plan, we:

Heard directly from the parent/carer forum through multiple focused sessions with the steering group, received feedback and held a follow up session to go through the draft plan, prior to submission.

• Heard the views of young people through focused discussions.

Briefed school/setting leaders from all age phases on the principles and aims of the reforms and set out how we plan to incorporate these into our post inspection priorities and development of SEND strategy.

• Surveyed and received feedback from school/setting leaders (63 direct responses and additional summary responses from primary heads).
• Provided reports to the SEND Partnership Improvement Board, which includes representatives from across the sector.
• Held theory of change sessions with health partners to look at what we are trying to achieve and how we will get there.
• Held multiple working groups to discuss the plan and agree the maturity assessment tool.

We have used a partnership approach, through the Theory of Change process, to agreeing an optimal delivery model for Experts at Hand. We are advancing the model in alignment with SEND inspection priorities and the ‘team around the school’ and community approach, mapping onto existing locality cluster partnerships.

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Structure for coproduction: Voice, influence and change.

Leeds SEND and AP Improvement Board The Voice and Influence Transparency Working Group report is a subgroup of the

Leeds SEND & AP Improvement Board. They use the issues raised by children, young people and parents/carers to steer group discussion and actions (issues trackers). Issues are addressed directly with relevant service leads. Complex issues that need strategic input will be raised with the improvement board.back to the Leeds SEND and AP Improvement Board.

Voice and Influence Transparency Working Group The voice and influence transparency working group is a subgroup of

the Leeds SEND and AP Improvement Board. The group look into the issues and challenges raised by children,

young people, parents and carers.

Six monthly SEND voice and influence report The purpose of the report is to collate voice and influence work from across the city,

champion good practice and raise awareness of the issues raised. All groups, specialist provisions, mainstream schools, APs and AIPs are asked to

contribute to the six-monthly voice and influence reports to and share the issues raised by the young people they work with.

Leeds SEND Youth Council The Leeds SEND Youth Council is a group of young

Takeover of the Leeds Area SEND and AP

Young people in school

Partnership Board The Voice, Influence and Change Team coordinate

people aged 11 to 25 years old with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) who live

(specialist, AP and mainstream) The Voice, Influence and Change Teamwork with all settings in Leeds to ensure young people in Leeds taking over the Leeds Area SEND and AP Partnership Board as part of national in Leeds or attend school in Leeds. The SEND Youth Council take part in:

• Commissioning panels
• Recruitment and selection panels
• Service consultations
• Make your mark
• Review Leeds Local Offer
• SEND and Inclusion Strategy takeover challenge. The takeover is an annual event that takes place in students have a voice and November. Young people are supported to share with board members the key issues and challenges they face in influence within the city:
• SEND Summit
• Service consultations
• Make your mark their day to day lives and celebrate what Leeds is doing well.

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9. Risks and Mitigations

What are the key risks that could affect the successful implementation of your Local SEND Reform Plan, and what mitigation strategies are in place to manage these risks? Please include a maximum of 5 risks with impact and likelihood Rag for each risk. See Annex C for suggested risk matrix.

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• Capacity due to balancing

business as usual with post Ofsted improvement priorities and implementation of the SEND reforms. This is in context of current changing policy regarding statutory services and allocation of resources.

Moderate Unlikely All strategic plans must be governed through the same consistent system. Reporting schedule including all aspects of strategic planning will include regular reporting through the Partnership SEND Improvement Board. Plans will be integrated so that priorities are addressed in a focused and targeted way. SROs will be responsible for all areas of improvement and will report regularly to the SEND & AP Improvement Board. Exceptions reporting will be a key feature to identify any slippage so that early solutions are found. Use of shared data, monitoring, oversight and governance through strategic partnership boards will track progress, identify variation in outcomes achieved and maintain oversight of whole system performance. Oversight: Monitoring through SEND Improvement Board. Performance data against priority actions, including deadline slippage, will trigger escalation. Escalation: Exceptions reporting will trigger escalation to council and Icb Executive Boards. Owner: Chief Officer for SEND

Legend (see appendix C for full descriptions) Page 68 of 86

10. Dependencies

Please detail the key areas of the local area partnership’s proposed SEND future state and roadmap that may be impacted by wider reforms nationally and locally and outline how you will manage these. We expect these will include but not be limited to:

• NHS reforms
• Local Government Re-organisation
• Reforms to Children’s Social Care
• Best Start in Life, including Family Hubs
• Best Start in Life Strategy
• Curriculum and Assessment Review

Delivery of the SEND transformation programme has dependencies associated with several national and local legislative and strategic priorities. To ensure a cohesive approach work is continuing to strengthen partnership to maximise impact of reforms. The Leeds Families Partnership Board meets for the first time in June and will provide governance and oversight across the Family Help and Early Support reform programme, including Best Start in Life, Families First, Neighbourhood Health for Children, and Youth Futures. The Board will bring together senior leaders from across the council, health, police, education and voluntary sector, alongside voice and influence, to drive a coordinated approach to family help, early support, prevention and neighbourhood-based working.

Concerns remain that concurrent NHS and Integrated Care Board (Icb) reforms risk compromising health related support for children and young people, i.e. if 50% funding cuts occur without the necessary protection of statutory functions. Changes within the Integrated Care Board (Icb) continue to have an impact on the capacity and availability of strategic partners and, whilst this is being managed, it creates ongoing challenges. There has been a considerable amount of work done to ensure that services are maintained although there is recognition that some pathways require accelerated progress, e.g. neurodevelopmental pathways.

Financial stability remains a concern as demand continues to outstrip capacity in relation to statutory functions of the partnership. However, the focus of the reforms on early identification aim to move away from an over-reliance on statutory processes toward a more balanced model of support, where mainstream schools are equipped to meet a wider range of needs earlier.

Regardless of systemic changes, the SEND transformation programme will remain a strategic priority, with governance and oversight sustained at the senior leadership level to ensure stability through any structural changes. This will be supported through consideration of the needs of districts which will require further analysis to identify accurate level of need and priorities.

Page 69 of 86 The partnership will continue to align SEND transformation with social care transformation by linking and bringing together key parts of the system through the Experts at Hand model and by strengthening pathways, improving joint working between all specialist services and ensuring that the needs of children and young people and localities are fully understood.

This will mean that emerging needs are identified earlier with the appropriate level of intervention being made accessible to support them. This will include combined pathways to support aimed at reducing escalation of need that requires more intense and longer-term intervention.

National changes to curriculum and assessment, and how schools are inspected by Ofsted, impact how schools identify and meet varied needs and ensure inclusive practice. This aligns with the intentions of the reforms and is seen as a positive lever to secure change. As a result, the partnership will strengthen through closer links with schools, trusts and education settings to prepare and respond to changes, ensuring that inclusive practice remains fundamental.

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Section 3: Monitoring and Evaluation

11. How will the local area partnership know delivery is on track?

Please set out how you will monitor and track progress referencing:

Monitoring tools and processes - the specific tools, systems, and data you will use to track delivery milestones and measure the impact on outcomes.

Some Local Area Partnerships hold data in a central SEND operational dashboard. This is used by teams on a weekly basis to identify trends in demand or inform conversations with local school or setting leaders.

In some Local Area Partnerships, a view of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is reviewed monthly by a SEND Board to take decisions on prioritisation, resourcing and delivery of services informed by regular data.

Please set out how you will use data to track demand (e.g., EHCP applications for assessment), Service delivery (e.g., Speech and Language Specialists deployment; places created), Service quality (e.g., parental satisfaction) and outputs (e.g., pupil attendance; pupil exclusions)

Feedback and adaptation mechanisms - what feedback loops and stakeholder input you will use to review progress and adjust your approach.

The SEND reform plan will be monitored through key milestones for the local area partnership’s SEND transformation programme. This will build on improvement activity from existing plans and the Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission's (CQC) inspection of services, in May 2026, and subsequent post inspection priorities. The activity here is a summary and does not include everything. However, the commitments made in creating the plan bring together key deliverables that we are trying to achieve as a local area partnership. Monitoring of progress will include:

Monthly reporting to the SEND Improvement Board to reflect any changes to the programme timelines, actions, vulnerabilities and successes. This will include development and monitoring of a data dashboard, directly linked to the actions outlined.

• Financial monitoring and oversight of the high needs block, joint commissioning arrangements and financial planning.
• Quarterly formal review of key performance indicators, to be reported corporately (at council and Icb strategic level).
• Regular scrutiny, check and challenge at key governance system meeting, workshops and corporate audit and review mechanisms.

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Issues Trackers collating key consultation findings will be used to increase boards awareness of key issues and influence the action plans of working groups. Case studies will demonstrate impact/what’s changed and shared with children, young people and families.

Lived experience and user satisfaction will be built into service design and delivery, i.e. Experts at Hand will have a specific reporting approach to gather the views of schools/settings, children, young people and parents/carers. This will included surveys, interviews, focus groups, Sendiass/Pcf themes, complaints analysis, community outreach, feedback in home languages, case studies and workshops to gather views.

An annual workforce training schedule, with a consistent way of gathering feedback and acting on this (feedback loop) to ensure training is achieving its' intended aims.

Monitoring tools

An outcomes framework will be developed (see annex D), that incorporates agreed outcomes across health, education, and social care to enable consistency of approach for what is being measured. This needs to be agreed by partners, with a reporting cycle to the SEND & AP Improvement Board. Reporting needs to be aligned with nationally published data and linked to key priorities. This will outline the reporting that will be done at different levels including:

o Every board meeting: Data dashboard to update on the latest performance for statutory processes including EHCP timeliness and quality assurance audit. Annual reviews, mediation and tribunals.

Quarterly: Update on health data including waiting times for therapies (speech and language, occupational therapy, waiting lists for paediatric services including neurodivergent pathways, numbers of children and young people open to CAMHS.

• Outcomes report for overview of specific indicators, e.g. Neet/Eet data (that will be identified through an agreed scorecard).

o Annually: Headline reports, including:

Analysis of the latest full year data in comparison to national, regional and statistical neighbours, following publication of the SEN2 data return.

• Educational outcomes report, following publication of the latest data by the DfE for the last full year.
• Joint Strategic Needs Assessment update.

o On request:

Items asked for by the board for a specific are of focus, e.g. preparing for adulthood, neurodevelopmental pathways and progress of specific areas of transformation.

Whilst the approach outlined above focuses largely on reporting to the SEND & AP Improvement Board, reports will also be made available for various other boards/meetings, as required, e.g. cabinet and scrutiny.

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12. Reporting to DfE

Using the attached data template, the local area partnership is required to provide quarterly data returns to DfE against selected key metrics. DfE will, in turn, provide quarterly data reports with visualised analysis and benchmarking that will support your local delivery, monitoring and evaluation. This will include data the department holds on Attendance, Exclusions, and Unauthorised absence.

Please use the attached data template to upload your initial data return to DfE.

See data template provided.

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Section 4: Governance

13. How will the local area partnership ensure delivery of plans remain on track?

Please outline the governance structures in place to oversee delivery. Clearly set out who is responsible for overseeing reform delivery, what each governance group or individual is accountable for, and how these arrangements ensure progress is monitored and decisions are made transparently. Please identify where the named Sro for the Local SEND Reform Plan sits within the governance structure and ensure your response incorporates the core minimum requirements.

Governance mechanism

Purpose/responsibilities

Membership

Cadence

Decision rights

Escalation route

What is the function of this governance mechanism? What are they accountable for overseeing? What information is reported to this governance mechanism?

Who does this governance mechanism comprise of? [should include health and Pcf representation] What stakeholders are represented at this governance mechanism? Please indicate who chairs this (include n/a if an individual).

How regularly does this governance mechanism meet?

What decisions can this governance mechanism make?

This may be a governance group, or an individual (e.g. Sro).

Where can this governance mechanism escalate issues or decision to?

Leeds City Council

Strategic decision making for Leeds City Council.

This Constitution sets out how Leeds City Council operates, how decisions are made and the procedures which are followed to ensure that decision-making is efficient, transparent and accountable to local people.

Monthly Strategic and financial decision-making and sign-off

N/A Health provision aligns with this, and joint issues often raised through the council.

Leeds Health & Care Partnership: Integrated Care Board Executive/Leeds Provider Partnership

Icb works at a regional level to improve health, with specific decision-making delegated to the local Leeds place level.

The Leeds Icb forms part of the wider West Yorkshire Health & Care Partnership, working together with local hospitals and voluntary sectors.

Bi-monthly Strategic and financial decision-making and sign-off

N/A As the changes to Health Infrastructure take effect, some of the decision making and delivery of activity will be undertaken by the Leeds Provider Partnership.

Ed Whiting, Chief Executive of Leeds City Council, appointed to the Icb Board as a Partner Member in early 2025.

The Icb plans and funds services, focusing on quality, safety, and addressing health inequalities.

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Governance mechanism

Purpose/responsibilities

Membership

Cadence

Decision rights

Escalation route

What is the function of this governance mechanism? What are they accountable for overseeing? What information is reported to this governance mechanism?

Who does this governance mechanism comprise of? [should include health and Pcf representation] What stakeholders are represented at this governance mechanism? Please indicate who chairs this (include n/a if an individual).

How regularly does this governance mechanism meet?

What decisions can this governance mechanism make?

This may be a governance group, or an individual (e.g. Sro).

Where can this governance mechanism escalate issues or decision to?

SEND & Alternative Provision Improvement Board

Multi-agency collaboration at the strategic and organisational level. The Board oversees strategic direction, impact and accountability of the SEND Local Area Partnership.

Chair: Anthony Douglas (independent) Monthly Strategic Council committees, scrutiny and Icb Executive Board.

Member partners: Senior Leaders from education, health and care, Leeds Parent Carer Forum.

The Board provides high-support and high challenge to key priorities and transformation groups.

SEND & AP Improvement Executive Group (operational decision makers)

Oversees operational delivery of the SEND Partnership priorities and alignment across transformation groups

Cochairs: Dcs (Pete Thorpe) Monthly Operational SEND & AP Improvement Board Director of Nursing & Quality Icb, (Ian Bennett) Uses joint accountability principles to dismantle barriers to transformation and escalating issues to the SEND and AP Improvement Board when needed.

Member partners: Operational Leaders from education, health and care, Leeds Parent Carer Forum and Voice Influence and Change Team (rep children and young people’s voice).

Health Partnerships and Nd Transformation Group

Oversees and drives forward the health contribution to Experts at Hand model development and implementation, neurodevelopmental pathways, therapy services, health waiting times, health advice to EHCNAs and EHCP reviews, and delivery of EHCP recommendations.

Chair: (Heather McClennand) Sro: Children’s Programme Lead, West Yorkshire Icb (Karren Leach) Member partners: Partners from education, health (including providers), and Parent Carer Forum representatives.

Half termly Strategic and operational

SEND & AP Improvement Board

Joint Commissioning Partnership

Oversight of partnership commissioning for key areas related to provision of services across the SEND system.

Chair: Chief Officer, Commissioning & Governance (Phil Evans) Member partners: Partners from education, health, care, and Leeds Parent Carer Forum.

Quarterly Strategic SEND & AP Improvement Board

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Governance mechanism

Purpose/responsibilities

Membership

Cadence

Decision rights

Escalation route

What is the function of this governance mechanism? What are they accountable for overseeing? What information is reported to this governance mechanism?

Who does this governance mechanism comprise of? [should include health and Pcf representation] What stakeholders are represented at this governance mechanism? Please indicate who chairs this (include n/a if an individual).

How regularly does this governance mechanism meet?

What decisions can this governance mechanism make?

This may be a governance group, or an individual (e.g. Sro).

Where can this governance mechanism escalate issues or decision to?

Preparation for Adulthood Transformation Group

Transformation of key areas of focus for PfA. Additional focus on key transitions in:

Chair: Chief Officer SEND & Learning Inclusion (Phil Evans, currently acting) Member partners: Partners from education, health and care, Leeds Pcf, and representatives from schools and post 16 providers. Voice, Influence & Change Team/Llo

Half termly Strategic and operational

SEND & AP Programme Board

• Education: key stage/phase transitions.
• Health: children to adults’ services.
• Social care: children to adults’ services.

EHCP Transformation Group

Oversight and delivery of the required recovery and transformation work related to SEND statutory processes.

Chair: Chief Officer SEND & Learning Inclusion (Phil Evans, currently acting) Member partners: Partners from education, health and care.

Monthly Strategic and operational

SEND & AP Improvement Board

AP Transformation Group

Oversight and delivery of the required recovery and transformation work related to alternative provision.

Chair: Chief Officer Education Member partners: Partners from education, health and care. Representatives from schools and AP providers.

Monthly Strategic and operational

SEND & AP Improvement Board

Chair: Principal Ep (Alison McCoy) Member partners: Partners from education, health (S&Lt/Ot providers) and care (Best Start in Life/Family Hubs). Representatives from schools and AP providers.

Experts at Hand Transformation Group

Oversight and delivery of Experts at Hand, including performance analysis, workforce implications, finance monitoring and setting ongoing priority areas to deliver the SEND reforms.

Half termly Strategic and operational

SEND & AP Improvement Board

Quality Assurance & Oversight Group (SEND & AP)

Oversight and direction for key areas aligned to priority areas of work. Provides operational and strategic oversight of the full EHCP process including Qa, assessment, planning, annual reviews, audit activity, digital developments, tribunal learning and family experience. Operational oversight of Pap.

Chair: Chief Officer SEND & Learning Inclusion (Phil Evans, currently acting) Member partners: Partners from education, health, care, education and health providers, Leeds Parent Carer Forum and young people’s representatives. Vic Team representing children and young people.

Monthly Strategic and Operational

SEND & AP Programme Board

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Governance mechanism

Purpose/responsibilities

Membership

Cadence

Decision rights

Escalation route

What is the function of this governance mechanism? What are they accountable for overseeing? What information is reported to this governance mechanism?

Who does this governance mechanism comprise of? [should include health and Pcf representation] What stakeholders are represented at this governance mechanism? Please indicate who chairs this (include n/a if an individual).

How regularly does this governance mechanism meet?

What decisions can this governance mechanism make?

This may be a governance group, or an individual (e.g. Sro).

Where can this governance mechanism escalate issues or decision to?

Workforce Development Transformation Group

Oversight and direction for creating workforce training plan, annual schedule of continuing professional development activity and ensuring action taken for key areas that require a focus within the workforce (includes education, health, care and parent programmes).

Chair: Head of Human Resources (Graham Sephton) Member partners: Partners from education, health, care, and Leeds Parent Carer Forum.

Half Termly Operational SEND & AP Programme Board

Communication & Coproduction Transformation Group

Closely aligned with the Voice, Influence & Transparency Working Group but with a specific focus on rapidly and sustainably improving communication with parents/carers and facilitating/supporting ongoing coproduction priorities (linked with Pap).

Chair: Children’s Strategy & Influence Lead Member partners: Leeds Parent Carer Forum, Carers Leeds, Social Care, Health, Education, Voice and Influence, Sendiass, Customer Relations, Third sector, Voice Influence Change Team, School representative.

6-weekly Strategic and operational

SEND & AP Programme Board

Voice, Influence & Transparency Working Group

The group identifies and collates issues raised through consultations, surveys, feedback mechanisms and complaints data from children, young people, parents and carers and records on issues trackers. Group reviews issues with services, identifies actions and tracks progress. Issues trackers and case studies evidencing what has changed are published on Llo, Leeds Youth Voice social media and to families via Pc Forum. Issues needing higher level of strategic input are raised via the SEND and AP programme/ improvement board,

Chair: Children’s Strategy & Influence Lead Member partners: Leeds Parent Carer Forum, Carers Leeds, Social Care, Health, Education, Voice and Influence, Sendiass, Customer Relations, Third sector, Voice Influence Change Team, School representative.

6-weekly Strategic and operational

SEND & AP Programme Board

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Governance structure

Proposed structure (aligns with priority action plan and SEND reform plan requirements)

Education Leadership West Yorkshire Health & Wellbeing Clt/Prevention Executive Corporate Leadership Primary Heads Secondary Heads Icb Executive Scrutiny Board Board Board Board Board P-16 Providers Ey Partners DfE & Nhse Quarterly Strategic Oversight & Accountability SEND & AP Improvement Leeds Parent/Carer Forum Voice, Influence & Change Board Review Children & Young People Voice, Influence & Change SEND & AP Improvement Executive Group Joint Commissioning Group (operational decision makers) Health Partnerships Quality Assurance & Workforce Development Transformation Preparation for Communication & Coproduction Experts at Hand Operational Oversight & EHCP Transformation AP Transformation Adulthood Transformation Transformation and Nd Transformation Oversight Group (SEND & Transformation Group Group Group Delivery Group Group Group Group AP) Resource Management & Communication Capital & Sufficiency Digital & Technology Enablers Workforce & Engagement Improvement Page 78 of 86

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Section 5: Central Government Support

14. How can we help you?

Please outline any practical support you need from central government to implement your plan effectively.

This may include:

• Access to specialist expertise or advisory support
• Help with workforce development or recruitment challenges
• Tools or templates to support data collection, reporting, or evaluation
• Facilitation of peer learning or regional collaboration
• Support with system-level coordination across education, health, and care
• Guidance on navigating regulatory or policy barriers

We are in the process of reforming the SEND system aligned with priorities identified in the most recent local area SEND inspection. Therefore, harmonisation of key issues being raised across the local area, with consideration of national, regional and statistical neighbour pressures is vital. This is because, in seeking to reshape support and provision to create more inclusive systems for children and young people, we can learn from each other, share good practice and avoid unnecessary duplication.

Whilst there is appetite for progressive change, this needs to be fully resourced, developed and all realistic risks identified. Financial implications need to be at the forefront of all aspects of implementation. To support the local area in this, useful activity could include:

Financial oversight with an aim of keep grant funding for commissioning additional capacity consistent and under review. This will enable better capacity to ensure financial aspects are accurate, realistic and continue to forecast need in line with mitigations.

A consistent approach to data collection related to performance measures and use will be invaluable. Tools and templates related to this will need to reflect what is common across all local areas, whilst allowing for local divergence that relate to each area's specific plans.

• Specialist expertise to check and challenge all aspects of the SEND reform plan.
• Support for joint commissioning at the strategic level, e.g. reviewing and improving section 75 agreements.

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Annex B: Supporting Documents

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Annex C: Risk Matrix

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Annex D: Data dashboard metrics

SEND & Inclusion: Key performance indicators

2026/2027 Comparators (latest published)

Key performance indicators Source (latest published)

Spring Summer Autumn Sn* Nat’ LA

Number of school aged Cyp Number of Cyp with SEND % of Cyp with an EHCP % of Cyp at Sens Total % of SEND (EHCP & Sens) Number going through assessment Percentage within 20 weeks Number of new requests to assess Number progressed to assessment Number refused at panel Percentage refused at panel Number resulting in Yes to issue Number resulting in No to issue Percentage refusal to issue a plan Number new placements in Inmss Number of mediations lodged Number of live mediations Number of mediation meetings held Number of outcomes in LA favour Number of tribunals lodged Number of live tribunals Number of tribunals held Page 83 of 86 Waiting times for autism and Adhd assessments (0-18).

Waiting times for therapies (Ot/Slt/Pt).

Mental health assessments.

Consultant Community Paediatric assessments.

Access to Children’s continuing care/Continuing Health Care.

Personal health budgets.

Dynamic Support Register (0-25).

Uptake Learning Disability Annual Health Checks.

Attendance: secondary.

Attendance: EHCP secondary.

Attendance: Cin secondary.

Attendance: Cp secondary.

Attendance: Early help secondary.

Attendance: primary.

Attendance: EHCP primary Attendance: Cin primary Attendance: Cp primary Attendance: early help primary Elective home education (Ehe) Elective home ed’ (Ehe): EHCP Part-time timetables (as reported) Children looked after (Cla) Children missing ed’: not on roll Suspensions: primary Suspensions: secondary Page 84 of 86 Suspensions: SEN support Suspensions: EHCP Permanent exclusion: primary Permanent exclusion: secondary Permanent exclusion: SEN Supp’

Permanent exclusion: EHCP EHCP p-16 transfer amendments P-16 Fe to He transfers Participation for Y12 and Y13 SEND Neet Unknown SEND in Eet Children looked after (Cla) Eet Number Yp in supported internships Number Yp on apprenticeships Page 85 of 86

Annex E: Glossary

AP Alternative Provision Ay Academic Year CAMHS Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service Cla Children Looked After Cme Children Missing Education Cpd Continuing Professional Development Cpp Change Programme Partnership CQC Care Quality Commission Cyp Children and Young People DfE Department for Education Ebsa Emotionally Based School Avoidance Ect Early Career Teacher Ehcna Education Health & Care Needs Assessment Request EHCP Education Health & Care Plan Ehe Elective Home Education Elsec Early Language Support for Every Child EOTAS Education Other Than at School Ep Education Psychologist Eps Educational Psychology Service Ey Early Years Fh Family Hubs Fy Financial Year Hnpca High Needs Provision Capital Allocations Icb Integrated Care Board Inmss Independent & Non-Maintained Special Schools Kpi Key Performance Indicators LA Local Authority MHiE Mental Health in Education Nhse National Health Service England Ofsted Office for Standards in Education

Ot Occupational Therapy Pa Persistently Absent Pap Priority Action Plan Pcf Parent Carer Forum Pep Principal Education Psychologist PfA Preparation for Adulthood Qa Quality Assurance Qtvi Qualified Teacher of the Visually Impaired S&Lt Speech & Language Therapy/Therapist SENCo Special Educational Needs Coordinator SEN Special Educational Needs SEND Special Education Needs and/or Disabilities SEND CoP SEND Code of Practice, 2015 Sendiass Special Education Needs and/or Disability

Information Advice & Support Service Silc Specialist Inclusive Learning Centre Slcn Speech Language & Communication Needs ToD Teacher of the Deaf Ytd Year-to-Date

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